The invention relates generally to electrical cabinets adapted to store, or house, electrical components, and, more particularly to electrical components used in data storage and transfer systems.
As is known in the art, electrical cabinets are used to store, or house, a variety electrical components such as printed circuit boards, batteries, cables, data servers, laptop computers, and other processing units. The electrical cabinets allow the components within the cabinet to be interconnected and also allow the internal components to be connected to components external to the cabinets. The cabinets typically have an access door and a number of compartments to store the various components. A remote workstation or laptop computer may be provided at the cabinet to assist with on-site repair or other functions. In addition, the individual components within the cabinet may be replaced or removed to a different location for repair.
As noted above, typically, some of the components housed in the cabinet are printed circuit boards. The broads are arranged in an array of vertical or horizontal guide slots (i.e., a linear array of guide slots) provided between opposing sides of the cabinet. Each board is insertable into a corresponding pair of the opposing guide slots and is urged towards the rear of the cabinet to enable an electrical connector mounted to the rear edge of the board to engage, and thereby electrically connect to, a backplane electrical connector provided at the rear of the cabinet. As currently configured, when a technician inserts a board into the guide slot, he/she may inadvertently insert one rear end portion of the board into a space between a pair of adjacent guide slots. Such misaligned insertion may result in one or more of the male pins becoming bent thereby damaging the board.
In accordance the invention, a cabinet is provided that is adapted for storage of a plurality of printed circuit boards. Each one of the boards has an electrical connector and the cabinet has a plurality of mateable connectors adapted for receiving a corresponding one of the printed circuit board electrical connectors. The cabinet includes an array of laterally spaced, parallel printed circuit board guide slots. Each one of the guide slots is adapted to receive opposing sides of a corresponding one of the printed circuit boards through an open end thereof. The guide slot guides a printed circuit board inserted therein towards engagement with the corresponding mateable connector. A plurality of stop members is provided. Each stop member is disposed within a corresponding one of the spaces between the guide slots. Each stop member is configured to prevent insertion of one of the printed circuit boards into the spaces between the guide slots.
With such an arrangement, the stop members prevent misaligned insertion of a printed circuit board and thereby prevent damage to male pins of the electrical connectors.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, a guide module is provided having a plurality of the spaced guide slots and the stop members. The modules are adapted for mounting to the opposing sides of the cabinet thereby facilitating in forming the linear array of guide slots on each of the sides of the cabinet.